SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG Forum
General Boards => New Member Introductions => Topic started by: Lance Dean on February 26, 2008, 08:50:58 PM
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Hi there! I just put this place together today. I hope it bears lots of fruit for the submarine museums.
A little about myself:
My name is Lance.
Also known online as snakeyez.
I'm 30, married to my wonderful wife Emily, no kids just yet.
I live in Mississippi and work as a consulting forester.
Never in the Navy.
Anyway, anything you want to know, ask it!
Enjoy the place,
Lance
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Hey everyone,
Tom Bowser here. I am the full time volunteer on the Drum, full time as in 60-70 hours each week. I am retired and am devoted to saving and restoring the Drum. I am hoping that all musuem volunteers and people connected with the museums will use this board to help each other, we all need help. Any questions come on in.
Tom
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Hey everyone, my name is Travis I am 17 and a volunteer at the U.S.S. Batfish SS 310. I live in Colorado, and volunteer at the Batfish while visiting my grandparents. However I hope to go to college in Oklahoma and work at the Batfish every weekend.
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Hello all, I'm Sean and I'm a Capricorn. I like long walks... Oops, wrong group. ;)
Thanks for doing this it is a good idea.
Perhaps in the future the names of the museums (master list) can have links to their address, website, and contact info. A lot of that information is on the USSVI website, perhaps you can borrow from there.
Not a criticism, just a suggestion. Thanks for the effort!
Sean Keck
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Hello all, I'm Sean and I'm a Capricorn. I like long walks... Oops, wrong group. ;)
Thanks for doing this it is a good idea.
Perhaps in the future the names of the museums (master list) can have links to their address, website, and contact info. A lot of that information is on the USSVI website, perhaps you can borrow from there.
Not a criticism, just a suggestion. Thanks for the effort!
Sean Keck
For sure! I plan to add lots and lots of more detailed information like that very soon. I want people to have all the information they can get EASILY in front of them about these museums.
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Hi everyone. I've been doing WWII German reenacting since early 2005, but recently got involved with the Batfish when I moved to the Tulsa area in mid-07. We had a good time doing an event for the tourists in December and I'm looking forward to May. Our "Skipper" put together skits for the different compartments and it gave people a better idea of what life was like on a fleet boat. I highly recommend this approach for the other museums and the WWII Navy uniforms are relatively inexpensive compared to other uniforms - you don't need helmets or field equipment, which helps a lot.
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Hi, I'm Bill and work with Lockwood Internet Base who Tom, Sean, and others belong to. I also keep up the sub memorials map on the USSVI site and work with the Boat Sponsorhip Program to make sure magazines come to each of the museum boats. This site of Lance's is a great idea. We will be working with him to get all of you who work on the museum boats posting here, exchanging ideas, and finding ways to get more money and volunteers for your boats. As part of that, at LIB we also are selling a patch in wholesale lots that can be used by each museum boat to make some money for the boat. It can also help to identify those who support your boat. USSVI has a convention this fall in Fort Worth and we are going to put up a big display for the museum boats. We'll be asking for help from you guys in putting this together. Email me with any questions or suggestions and I am sure some of the ideas we come up with will help others.
Thanks,
Bill
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Just wanted to let people know I changed my profile name from SS 310 to my actual name. For those of you on subsim.com I am shoot-kill-win.
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Hehe I did the same. :)
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Aloha!
This is Charles Hinman, the Director of Education & Outreach at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I also run a website known as "On Eternal Patrol" (www.OnEternalPatrol.com).
Thank you for creating this forum.
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Aloha!
This is Charles Hinman, the Director of Education & Outreach at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I also run a website known as "On Eternal Patrol" (www.OnEternalPatrol.com).
Thank you for creating this forum.
Wonderful! I've visited the "On Eternal Patrol" many times, it's a cool read.
Someday, I hope to get to visit the Bowfin and stay in the Royal Hawaiian just like my grandfather did back in WWII. :)
Stick around and post all you want about the Bowfin down in the Bowfin board. Thanks for joining!
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Hi All... I'm CJ from Manitowoc,WI and I am proud of the contibutions of the subs built in Manitowoc played in the Pacific. Especially the U.S.S. RASHER, which sank 18 vessels totaling 99,901 tons. RASHER was awarded four Presidential Unit Citations for her first, third, fourth and fifth War Patrols. BTW excellent web site Lance
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I always wanted to have a daughter that I could name Crystal Lee Clear, and when she grew up she could be an exotic dancer - fortunately cooler heads (read: various wives) prevailed! But in the memory of that I chose "crystal" as an on-line I.D. on various boards (not all). It used to get everyone excited imagining this exotic chick out there until they found out I was a crusty old, retired, diesel boat Chief.
Great job Lance! As with Paul's comment (the Cod), not sure what it can accomplish if their own group (HNSA) can't light a fire under these entities but at least you've centralized a place where the ones "who care" can check in and exchange thoughts and ideas.
I might recommend that you add the Naval Undersea Museum even though they don't have a "full" submarine (only the Sturgeon's sail) but they do have the Trieste II and the Deep Quest in their parking area. let alone a hugely productive museum, research library and staff.
(http://www.usssealion.com/bbs/NUM.jpg)
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Hey Crystal..no mention of "cobra pupils" today? :P
I'm just not sure what I want to add just yet. Once you get outside of the listing of complete submarines as museums, the list gets HUGE! There are zillions of places that have parts and pieces and partial submarines.
Just lookie at this whopper of a list:
http://www.esryle.com/coblinks/links/MUSEUMS.html
I just dunno. I might try to add a "links" page with all of that kind of stuff listed in a similar fashion. Right now I wanted to really focus on the submarines that are open to the public as museums as it seems they need the biggest push right now.
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This is Dave way out here in the Pacific Northwest and home to the USS Blueback. She is part of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The museum is usually closed on Monday's and a group of us go aboard and do whatever is needed to keep her afloat and ready for the public. I am a recent addition to the crew. Some of the volunteers have been working on her for over 10 years.
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This is Dave way out here in the Pacific Northwest and home to the USS Blueback. She is part of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The museum is usually closed on Monday's and a group of us go aboard and do whatever is needed to keep her afloat and ready for the public. I am a recent addition to the crew. Some of the volunteers have been working on her for over 10 years.
Welcome aboard Dave! I'm glad to see you here. Please tell your Blueback friends about this place, and talk all about the Blueback on the Blueback board down below. I'd love to hear more about it.
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Hello troops.
The more people that know about all the boats, the better will be the attendance to them and hopefully the more funds will find their way in the many ongoing restoration efforts.
I need to remind all of the Restoration Supporter patch Lockwood Base of USSVI has. For $7 you buy a patch from them and 100% of the net goes this year to help the Drum. That might change in '09 or maybe not. But any group can buy the patch in quantity for $4.50 and them mark it up to sell at their own locations to raise funds for their boat/museum.
Also we have developed a rocker that fits on top of the Restoration patch to show which boats you directly support or have visited. Right now the Drum and the Cavalla have those rockers in the works. Hopefull the Silversides and Torsk people will take advantage of the program.
Looking forward to meeting the Cavalla people and Batfish types in Ft. Worth in September at National Convention. Would like to meet the Bowfin guy one day also.
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Hello troops.
The more people that know about all the boats, the better will be the attendance to them and hopefully the more funds will find their way in the many ongoing restoration efforts.
I need to remind all of the Restoration Supporter patch Lockwood Base of USSVI has. For $7 you buy a patch from them and 100% of the net goes this year to help the Drum. That might change in '09 or maybe not. But any group can buy the patch in quantity for $4.50 and them mark it up to sell at their own locations to raise funds for their boat/museum.
Also we have developed a rocker that fits on top of the Restoration patch to show which boats you directly support or have visited. Right now the Drum and the Cavalla have those rockers in the works. Hopefull the Silversides and Torsk people will take advantage of the program.
Looking forward to meeting the Cavalla people and Batfish types in Ft. Worth in September at National Convention. Would like to meet the Bowfin guy one day also.
Thank you for joining up Ron! I added a post (http://submarinemuseums.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0) down in the Drum board about the patches and SaveOurSubmarines.com.
I can't find anyone to contact via email about Silversides. Do you know anyone to invite to here from there? The Silversides is one of the sub museums I'd most like to visit someday. Anything that has anything to do with "silversides.org" no longer works.
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Lance, here is an email address for the Silversides. Don't know who will answer it, but once you get a message to them, someone will surely put you in touch with the right people.
Bill
contactus@silversides.org
Lance wasn't thinking about which number the Silversides is. Paul Kidd can help you. Here is his email address.
cob-ss424@comcast.net
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Lance, here is an email address for the Silversides. Don't know who will answer it, but once you get a message to them, someone will surely put you in touch with the right people.
Bill
contactus@silversides.org
Lance wasn't thinking about which number the Silversides is. Paul Kidd can help you. Here is his email address.
cob-ss424@comcast.net
Cool, I will give the comcast.net address a try soon.
ANYTHING that has @silversides.org will bounce. There are no email addresses or websites ending with @silversides that work anymore.
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Dave, can you let us know who at your boat is good to talk to about the Blueback. Lockwood Internet Base has a couple of things going on that might be of interest to those who work with the boats. LIB has a resotration patch with rockers avialable that can be sold to raise funds and indentify supporters of the museum boats and we also are working on a an informational display for the USSVI Conventon in the fall. We hope to get representatives from all the boats to be there and explain their boat, it's needs, and what is happening with it. Thanks,
Bill
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Hello...Mark Allen here. I am a volunteer at, and do the website for, the U.S.S. Batfish SS 310 (www.batfish.com). Glad to see this site and a few other Batfish volunteers already here. Thanks Lance for making the effort.
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Welcome aboard Mark. You have not met me, however I am a volunteer at the Batfish (Rick might have said something to you about the kid from Colorado who volunteers there, well that is me.)
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Hello...Mark Allen here. I am a volunteer at, and do the website for, the U.S.S. Batfish SS 310 (www.batfish.com). Glad to see this site and a few other Batfish volunteers already here. Thanks Lance for making the effort.
Great man, I'm glad to see you here. Make sure you stick around! There was something I really needed to ask you about the batfish.com but now I can't remember what it was. Hmmm...I'll think of it.
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Lance, here is an email address for the Silversides. Don't know who will answer it, but once you get a message to them, someone will surely put you in touch with the right people.
I think the contact for the SILVERSIDES is Charley Roesch. I have his email as: croesch@comcast.net
A nice guy that gave me and my brother a personal tour of the SILVERSIDES a few years ago.
Mark
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I FUBAR'd my own website earlier ::)
www.ussbatfish.com. It was late and I was tired.
Yes Travis, we traded a few emails last year as I introduced you to Rick. I'm sorry I couldn't make it down last summer (personal stuff) but will look for you this summer after you graduate.
Lance - thanks for the welcome. I'll stick around as long as you'll have me. I may be hit and miss until the summer...taking a night class and work always gets into the way of me having fun ;D
Mark
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I FUBAR'd my own website earlier ::)
www.ussbatfish.com. It was late and I was tired.
Yes Travis, we traded a few emails last year as I introduced you to Rick. I'm sorry I couldn't make it down last summer (personal stuff) but will look for you this summer after you graduate.
Lance - thanks for the welcome. I'll stick around as long as you'll have me. I may be hit and miss until the summer...taking a night class and work always gets into the way of me having fun ;D
Mark
Oh, I completely forgot about that Mark. Well it will nice to meet you this summer.
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Hello from the USS Silversides, SS236, in Muskegon Michigan. The Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum is alive and well and currently building a new permanent museum building. I serve on the Board of Directors and try to learn as much as possible about submarines. Currently, my main job at the sub is keeping the onboard audio/video systems working. Otherwise, I'm a semi-retired anesthesiologist. Anyone with questions about the Silversides, send me a note at croesch@comcast.net. We have produced a 90 minute detailed video tour of the Silversides and a photo CD with 256 labeled photos if anyone is interested.
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Hello from the USS Silversides, SS236, in Muskegon Michigan. The Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum is alive and well and currently building a new permanent museum building. I serve on the Board of Directors and try to learn as much as possible about submarines. Currently, my main job at the sub is keeping the onboard audio/video systems working. Otherwise, I'm a semi-retired anesthesiologist. Anyone with questions about the Silversides, send me a note at croesch@comcast.net. We have produced a 90 minute detailed video tour of the Silversides and a photo CD with 256 labeled photos if anyone is interested.
We are VERY glad to have you here Charley. Please check in and post anything you'd like about the Silversides down in the Silversides board below.
I've just learned that she is the top in both tonnage and number of ships sunk of any of the submarine museum boats.
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Charley,
My name is Bill Lee from Lockwood Base. I am sending you an email. Thanks for checking in
Bill
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Hi Bill. I'm just now exploring the website. Charley Roesch, Muskegon, Michigan.
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Hi all,
I'm Carl Hansen aka SS352. Qualified on the Halfbeak then spent several years on the Pat Henry as a RO - ETR2(SS). Ron Martini and I shared Maneuvering on the 599.
Currently Treasurer of USSVI NJ-North and host of the SaveTheLing web site. I'll give a brief update on the Ling under that discussion area.
Currently building a 1/72 R/C Gato class boat using the Revell kit and Caswell controls (going to harass my model sailboat club on Marco Island next year).
Carl
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Lance: Great site you have here and glad to have found it. I need to explain some things. First the name K0EFV is my Amateur Radio Call Sign. Yes I am a Marine and also EX-Army. My profile will show I am now 81 years young. I am also an associate member of US Submarine Veterans WWII Lockwood Chapter and United States Submarine Veterans Inc. Razorback Base. Also I am a member of too many other Veteran and Military organizations to list them here. But I will list The Wisconsin Maritime Museum Home of the USS Cobia. We have operated many special Amateur Radio Events from the Sub. One item now and I will use the other forums later. My friend Tom Aschenbrenner has finished restoration of the radios and Radar. Both are 100% functional and I have photos of the Radar Scope Dispays after restoration.
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Lance: Great site you have here and glad to have found it. I need to explain some things. First the name K0EFV is my Amateur Radio Call Sign. Yes I am a Marine and also EX-Army. My profile will show I am now 81 years young. I am also an associate member of US Submarine Veterans WWII Lockwood Chapter and United States Submarine Veterans Inc. Razorback Base. Also I am a member of too many other Veteran and Military organizations to list them here. But I will list The Wisconsin Maritime Museum Home of the USS Cobia. We have operated many special Amateur Radio Events from the Sub. One item now and I will use the other forums later. My friend Tom Aschenbrenner has finished restoration of the radios and Radar. Both are 100% functional and I have photos of the Radar Scope Dispays after restoration.
KOEFV, just wanted to ask if you were involved in any combat in WWII?, because my grandpa is 80 now, and did not get in in time to see any combat.
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Koefv
Hi glad to have drop in. Would it be possible to get a copy or email of the radar display photo? We are wanting to put something in our radar scopes but don't know what it shouls look like.
Tom Bowser
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Hey Lance:
This is a nice site you are building. I have been to OMSI in Portland but didn't see any Sub. I guess I will have to be more dilligent when I am down there next time.
I haven't had the pleasure of touring a sub yet but have seen a number of them in Puget Sound. It is pretty cool to see one get escorted out to sea.
I'll keep in touch.
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I have been on, but have not formally introduced my self yet.
I am Rick Dennis the Park Manager/Director/clerk/janitor/add a title for the USS Batfish (AKA Muskogee War Memorial). I do not have any Navy experience, but did spend 4 years in the Air Force (don't worry I do not hold that against any of you Navy guys :D)
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Great to see you on here Rick, you will be a great addition to this forum, as you can straighten out alot of us volunteers on what we are talking about. lol.
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Thank you for the vote of confidence Travis. It is good to see that I have one convinced that I think I know what I am talking about ;D
I will put in any information that I can. It iwll be good to the more of the other subs involved as well. There are otheres that know far more then I don.
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Rick
It is great to see a Park manager/director here and involved in your boat, If I can be of any assistance plese let me know.
Tom Bowser
sub vet volunteer USS Drum
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Hi all. Just registered and thought I would introduce myself.
My name is Danny.
Live in Broken Arrow, OK.
Have been reading about WWII subs since I was a teenager.
Have more time, relatively speaking, and I have been lurking subsum, and about to get involved with the Batfish bunch.
CDR Resser has been my handle since Pacific Thunder.
Respectfully Submitted;
CDR Resser
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Live in Broken Arrow, OK.
Danny - come on down and volunteer at the BATFISH!!!!
In fact, my wife and I will be there this upcoming Saturday. So will Vaughn "The Man" Newkirk.
Rick can give you the grand tour...then we'll put you to work ;)
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Danny, WELCOME! We're glad to have ya! Jump right on into the conversations going on around here.
Thanks for joining up!
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Glad you are here Danny. The Batfish needs all the volunteers it can get so come on down.
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The Batfish needs all the volunteers it can get so come on down.
That goes for you too Travis...get graduated already and get the escape hatch done. ;D
Will be nice to have lots of people out this summer.
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I have 23 days of actual school left, then about 7 days until my graduation, then I am going to Kansas City to visit some family, then I will be coming down to Oklahoma.
I will work my hardest on the escape hatch, however I will not be able to come up as much as I did last time because of the high price of gas this year.
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No worries Travis...was joking around mostly...although it will be nice to FINALLY meet you.
Will you be staying in Stillwater or Tahlequah this summer?
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I will be staying in Cookson (where my grandparents actually live) its only about 15 minutes away from Tahlequah, I say they live in Tahlequah because most people have never heard of Cookson or dont know where it is.
However I will be going over to Stillwater at least Once for freshman orientation.
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Danny,
Welcome to the board. I would love to see you down at the Batfish. We ave a lot of good people down here and a few personalities to boot. (mine included :uglystupid2:)....
Rick
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Danny,
Welcome to website. I recognize you from Subsim and you probably recognize me, too. What are your specialties? Mechanics? Electronics? I live in Jenks right up the road from you. The next time that I'll be heading to the boat is for the reunion weekend on May 10. You're more than welcome to tag along.
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Hi my name is Darrin Singer and I am a former TM3(SS) stationed on the USS Honolulu (SSN 718) and I rode the USS San Francisco (SSN 711), the USS Olympia (SSN 717) and the USS Omaha (SSN 692) and I am also a former EO3(SS) USNR (NMCB 1, 15, 21) and the USS ly Spear (AS-36) as a MM3(SS) and now currently a Staff Sergeant in the Army. My hobbies consist of working on the USS Torsk (SS-423) when I can get the time and money to make it up there.
Lance this is a great website, thank you shipmate for what you have done in supporting the museum boats..
Darrin
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Thanks Darrin. Tell a friend! :)
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Welcome aboard, Darrin. Nice to see another Torsk guy on here.
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I wondered when you would be along Darrin! I will be on the Torsk this Saturday. Been away for a few weeks as my basement flooded and I was cleaning that up. I understand Tim is done with his cruises for the minute so maybe he and I can resume the engine room restoration.
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What kind of work are you guys doing in the engine room? Are you trying to get one of the engines running?
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Chris, Tim was on the boat last weekend and he should be back onboard this weekend, hopefully......
The engine rooms on Torsk are slowly and carefully being restored, valves and the wiring for the saftey switches (over rev, temp, start, stop) are being restored in preparation for one day starting a engine back up. #3,4 are full of preservatives (since '68) and #1&2 have been rolled over in the last few years on roughly #100 psi. If I remember right #2 is toast (Reserves ran it until '71 and they were pretty harsh on it). Most if not all of the gauges for #1&2 have been restored along with the gauge panels that they are in.
What we need is a Fairbanks/Morse enginmen of ANY era to help us work on getting her ready to run again, while we have Tim to keep us moving along and Joe Roach from time to time there isn't enough enginemen onboard to warrant getting the air bumped up to 250psi (which will require us to buy a BIGGER compressor) and then going through all of the rebuilt injectors and transfer pumps and LO purifiers and the lines to purge out any contaminated fuel or debris. Then there is the daunting task of transfering the old probably bad LO and FO from one tank to another while filtering it and then diving those tanks to clean out the sludge and slime so we can refilter the burned oil and probably bad FO back into there origional tanks.... Assuming that everything works still and we are able to get the DC power situation straightened out (getting Bmore to fix it on the pier) and getting our DC system back to where it can fully take the DC from the pier (should be done by now if not already on Torsk).
Once the previous items have been taken care of we still need to hand over hand her cooling system to make sure that the piping is all still there and not plugged and that we have an access to a water source (our tanks were sealed years ago in the yards) so that we can run the engine for a couple of minutes instead of getting her running and then have to shut it down after the Govenors settle down (those have to be gone through again) and she can run until she starts to get to the upper part of the temp band so we don't burn the bearings or anything else.... This and we also have to pull the air start lines and make sure that all of the lines are contaminate and debris free and make sure that they are all pushing the required pressure to the cylinders for starting it correctly.
Did I mention that we will also have to contact the Aquarium and the Fire department to make sure that they know that we are not burning to the water line because of all of the smoke and crap that is going to come out of the exhaust after not being run for 36 years. Speaking of the exhaust the lines running topside will need to be checked to make sure that they are intact also prior to start up, the intake valves and exhaust valves all work and have been cycled recently, granted the Main induction head valve is barely open and refuses to move, it is not required as long as the hatches are open and the water tight doors chained open.
BTW there is a engine restoration plan in one of the lockers in the engine room that details the restoration of the engines for starting and running..
Sadly I won't be onboard this weekend and I am going to try to push for the first weekend in july to come back up.
Darrin
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All that I can say is WOW! I know that our engines need the same amount of TLC. That's pretty much an overhaul. Since we are land-locked, we really have no intention of running engines, though.
What condition is your #5 back-up engine in? You could use that to generate DC power (through the maneuvering room cubicle), but diesel isn't cheap.
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I have seen the locker but there is a lock on it. I asked Dave about it but he said he was not sure where the key is. Perhaps you have it? I was looking at it when we had the last Torsk work weekend. Tim hunted me down to help paint the nasty blue Fairbanks into a nice gray :) We just painted around it. I would like to look at the plans. I was a ASE certified auto technician and know what I'm looking at to get a engine rolling. As far as FER, I'm slowly running out of panels to restore. Currently I'm pondering the next move on the bulkhead by the crew mess. Plenty to do there. However, I have to complete the snorkel panel. As far as the engines, it would be something to get them to fire up. The aquarium folks will probably run for their lives. Tim said one engine turned over a few years back. I enjoy working with Tim. He has such a love for the engine rooms. Basically, it is just he and I at the moment who enjoy the smell of diesel in the morning.
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I'm getting addicted to the smell of diesel oil, too. It's the smell of past victories. :) We volunteers and reenactors are pretty much the ones to carry the torch, now. The WWII vets are almost gone and someone has to tell their story. Thankfully, the 50's and 60's vets will be with us for a while longer.
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Mark,
while it sounds like a complete overhaul is required to fire one diesel up it actually isn't, most of this is nothing more the Preventitive Maintenance that hasn't been done in a few years.. All of the injectors are rebuilds from F/M and the LO Transfer Pump were rebuilt 5 years ago and the Priming pumps were gone through and rebuilt and re-installed. The fuel lines will also need to be pulled and purged because of them having a little FO in them. For the air lines and FO lines they are relatively easy, pop them off at the block and then roll the engine over and blow ALL of the crap out of the lines, this will take care of whatever condesation that has formed inside the lines.
IF our seawater chest is fully blanked off (it was supposed to have been done in the '97 drydock) then we will have to go to an alternative method to bring in cooling water for the engine. The only thing that it takes is a want and a desire and dedication to make it happen, in the early days of Torsk Volunteer Association (TVA) we had dedicated enginemen and contacts with F/M who came up and worked on her from time to time and did a LOT of the work that I have mentioned in the previous posts about getting the engines running again, back then there was a number of people who had the dedication desire and the want to make it happen but as time went by people faded away and the desire is still there but not the people with the "proper" training.
BTW TVA has loaded a LOT of batteries onboard for various DC loads one of which can be the DC voltage required for the F/M and they are getting them installed and ready to run.
Now for those who have never been to www.hnsa.org please go and review the tech manuals online and review the restoration procedures that they have set up, we are here to PRESERVE our museums and restore them to a time line of her service history. While some of you don't have to worry about NAVSEA coming down and inspecting your boat from top to bottom to make sure that she is still safe and watertight (for those still in the water) and that you have not restored her to go back to sea on her own or able to fire her weapons systems again without their permission. the HNSA website like I mentioned earlier is run by Rich Plekney and he as taken the time to scan the WWII configuration manuals from the USS Pampanito and he has also acquired other tech manuals and scanned them and put them online, this is FREE to all who want to use them.
Chris, you have one of the best teachers onboard IF you can get him to help you learn his job. Tim has cancer and we don't know how long he has and IF I was closer to there I would have been bugging the living hell out of him to teach me how to be an enginemen, while it has been a LONG time since I ran a F/M right now I couldn't without the book and knowing the tollerances on some of the parts you need someone there to help you as you learn the job right. I could teach you out of the book how to rebuild a 38 1/8D but I don't know any of the little tricks to make the jobs easier and with a lot less blood on the deck. My advice to you if you haven't done it already go and download the submarine manuals on HNSA and pay particular attention to the Air, Hydraulics and of course the Diesel blocks. I have full copies of Torsk's hydraulics that were hand over hand and then put on paper, I may have her Air systems also on hard copy, those also were done hand over hand before ALL of her air banks were brought back online.
You my friend have a daunting task ahead of you IF you want to take on the task, OR you can restore all of the gauge panels on the boat and paint all of the bulkheads and other equipment on the boat OR you can take the experienced Engineman that works with you on a semi regular basis and try to learn his job and when Tim and Joe Roach (joe btw has gone to Sonar Div) are gone we won't have any dedicated Enginemen onboard, there is one more but he wasn't there at the last Work Weekend, "Stash" was MIA for the first time since TVA started and I haven't heard anything about how he is doing in the last year or so, he btw was one of the two or three that rebuilt most of the pumps and other parts for the #1 engine.
Take it for what it is worth, you can do whatever you would like to do on Torsk and I can think of a hundred jobs in the Torpedo Rooms that need to be done and I WILL show you how to be a TM (granted you and I will be learning a WWII tube system together) but I will show you how they work and what needs to be done to restore the rooms OR like I mentioned earlier you can breathe new life back into an engine that has set idle since '71 (a couple of months before I was born). If you haven't noticed we no longer have the WWII vets coming down and working and giving tours and telling us their sea stories of when Torsk and others were the kings of the sea and we don't have a whole lot of 637 sailors or previous nuke sailors coming down to help us either. It's your call Chris on what you want to do and you have shown that you want to work your ass off and try to restore those engines so they can once more come to life, take the initiative and make it happen. IF you don't want to do that then Frank and I will show you how to be a TM or you can ask Dave or Mike how to be an electrician OR get with Chief Bill and learn how to do his job. Once Chief Bill goes we will have no one to work on the IC stacks or someone that knows how to keep them and the other god help me for saying this "antiquated" electronics onboard. As for the keys to the locker in the FER ask Larry "torksdoc" for the key, he may have it on his key ring or he knows who has it and can try to get it for you.
Mark to answer your question about the #5 diesel it was REMOVED during a shipyard period in the late '50s or early '60s, so we have no "dink" onboard to power her up without bringing a F/M back online.
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Yes, I know Tim is under the big "C" at the moment. Besides polishing and painting, Tim and I talk of his problem and other things. I was going through a few things medically when Tim found out so we compare notes. But, the situation does not seem to dampen his spirits. I would like to get one engine rolling. Tim said the sound is the sweetest you will ever hear. Now that is a true engine man!!!! One other thing we have to look at is the intake up in the sail. Rusted to death. Perhaps just open a interior intake pipe and open the hatch for air flow. As far as water to cool, perhaps a intake and discharge hose routed off the pump and routed through the hatch. Let's face it, we can get a engine free wheeling in her mounts, it will not be pushing the boat anywhere...heck one prop is up in Philadelphia. As far as the electric motors below maneuvering, the brushes are off on both of the them. Oddly enough, these are brand new brushes. So, just having the engine idle is what we should shoot for. I strongly believe that is with in reach. But, you know us kids, get it idling and then you want to throttle it up to hear the 1600 horses at work!!!!
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Once you have it running are there any plans to let the generator run anything electrical on the boat?
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One thing at a time!
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You can always dream. :D
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While it would be nice to be able to run the diesels again and put a load back on them to get them working we haven't had our batteries onboard in nearly 40 years so that is a NO go on running DC operated equipment with the diesel powering them. One day we will have the diesel running and yes they are the sweetest sound you can hear and feel, IF you want to hear the Pampanito's go to the HNSA website and download the audio version along with ALL of her other gear powering up and working. Chief Mike and Dave have gone through most of the wiring and they have most of the bugs out of the wiring now so the big need is for a dedicated group to start working on the diesel again.